Annessa Babic ’98 is a current college professor. Read Part 1 of her advice to freshmen here. _____________________________________________________________________________

When someone makes a late night run to Steak N’ Shake, go. The food might not be the best in the world, or remotely good for you, but those late night conversations will stay with you longer than the calories on the plate. When the World Series occurs, and people start converging in the common areas to root and watch, hang around. You may not like baseball, or either team playing, but in the end you will be richer for a communal moment that is harder to come by in a technology based world. For the record, in 1996 the Yankees played the Braves.  I am a diehard Yankees fan, and I took more grief than I care to remember for yelling for the pinstripes. Memories of watching those games, amongst my roommates, football players, random people from class, and those I still call friends still bring excitement and joy to me.

Use these same acquaintances along the way to battle the hard classes and laugh at the great ones. Embrace study groups, but don’t pester professors for review days. More often than not, those don’t happen. Instead, rely on yourself and your cadre of friends to amass the understanding needed for the task at hand. I firmly believe ninety percent of the college experience teaches you to make decisions on your own, stand your own ground and learn how to maneuver this thing we call life.

Notice, I did not say ace the exam. Why? Much like life, academic scores come from understanding. If you understand the material, you will show that in your answers. If you try to dryly memorize the data your answers will show a lack of understanding with jumbled and convoluted phrases sloppily laid on your page. This sense of understanding should carry you through your days. Do not worry if you don’t have a major in your first year. Do not worry if you still don’t have one in your second year. If you reach your junior year and still have no direction, then you should certainly seek some guidance. Why shouldn’t you worry? Those pesky classes called the deck requirements aren’t put there to drum you into submission. They give you a sampling of skills, subjects, and tasks. They should help you find what your true passion is. I have to say, if your true passion is history, don’t worry about how much money you won’t make. Instead, relish in the fact of how you will do something you love and love what you do.  

I see that this year the freshman class logo is “Your future is so bright you gotta wear shades.” What was mine? I transferred to KWC in 1996, and I think we were “Foundations.” Honestly, I cannot remember. What I do recall is that within a matter of weeks – like many college coeds – my wardrobe became a poster board for KWC. My friends were a hop and skip away.  Watching the football team lose wasn’t so bad because we knew them and knew they had heart. The basketball team brought up bragging rights for that blue and white school on the other side of the state. And . . . dubbing my favorite professor Captain History, later to be named “The Grinch who Stole My GPA,” and when he turned thirty, we painted Minerva in his honor.

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Annessa Ann Babic ’98 majored in English and History at KWC. She earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stony Brook University in 2008 and currently teaches at New York Institute of Technology and SUNY College at Old Westbury. She is the co-editor of The Globetrotting Shopaholic (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008), has written scores of academic pieces and uses a pen name to write fiction. She lives in Astoria (Queens), NY.

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It’s that time of year again, when young and old all across the land head back to school.  Back in the day, I stood in line as a new kid to get my polyester gym shorts and white tee. You could smell the fear in the room. Ugh, gym class and middle school. Neither were good combinations, particularly those polyester shorts. Ugh, gym shorts.

The power of literary technique allows me to jump forward seven or so years to my days at Kentucky Wesleyan. Those first days for new freshmen are always filled with wonder and awe, and in many cases a lot of angst arises. Unfortunately, this angst does not necessarily dissipate with the swing of the new semester. More often than not, though, this angst can pass rather seamlessly like the turns of the seasons. These are the things I often try to convey to my own timid freshman, or drifting and worried upperclassmen.

I graduated college in 1998, and yes we had the internet. My college days were shortly before the birth of Google, long before the advent of internet blackmail known as YouTube, at the beginning of cell phones becoming commonplace, right before the installation of key cards versus keys, when the computer lab was the only place to do your work, and at the end of the era when cable was not in dorm rooms. We gathered in common rooms to watch South Park and yell at ESPN games. In the midst of this, course work fell and campus legends loomed.

First, professors do not sharpen their pencils with their teeth or grade your papers with their blood. Trust me. We do not idle away at our desks and computers looking for ways to make your life miserable, and when we say come speak to us you should. Course syllabi are like maps for the semester, and like any good road trip, things may change. So when a professor adds a reading, or changes a due date, he or she is doing it because the nature of the group calls for it. Believe it or not, we have lives. We like ball games, we like dinner with friends, and we like to do things non-academic. Hence, when something is due turn it in. When you have trouble, don’t wait until the last minute to get help. Emailing a professor at 1:00 a.m. the night before the final will not help your grade.

On that same note, but slightly different, college is about more than the books. My fondest memories of KWC involve strolling through the quad and sharing a soda with those I met along the way. There used to be an infant tree outside what is now the Old Grill. In 2000 a tornado came and took it down, and to this day I am still saddened. Why? I read Jack Kerouac under that tree, studied for my favorite class, and Melanie Basham, Sonya Martin and I planned how we would change the world.

My point: remember in the hustle and bustle to stop and talk to those around you. Those first few days you won’t know many or even anyone. Within a week you will certainly know at least twenty-five, and the beauty and joy of KWC is that it is a small campus. There is always a friend around a corner. Though too, the pain of KWC is that it is small. If you do something outlandishly stupid you will be reminded four years later after you walk across the stage. More so, remember to have fun.

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon …

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Students interested in studying abroad (and who isn’t?) in Winter or Spring Terms 2011 — you’ve got until September 1, 2010, to apply for funding. That will be here before you know it, so find out just what you need to do to get ready this summer:

If you plan to go abroad for either term, contact Pam Parr with the KWC Study Abroad Program as soon as you can. She’s in FOB 16 or at 270-852-3226 or you can e-mail her here.

She will get you a grant application packet, which you must return to her by September 1, 2010. The packet includes the following items:

• Two faculty recommendations (using the form included in the packet)
• Essay (instructions included in the packet)
• Advisor approval of abroad courses (using the International Studies Approval Form)
• Application to Study Abroad Program (Need ideas/suggestions? E-mail Pam Parr for information)
• Submission of official Statement of Cost
• Nonrefundable $25 application fee

If you’re interested, get in touch with Pam Parr and she will start you on your way around the world.

If you’re on the fence about whether or not studying abroad is worth the effort, check out these links (you’ll be off the fence in no time):

• KWC Senior David Bertschinger’s blog from his semester in Rome (Spring 2010)
• Photos from KWC Junior Aaron Taylor’s class this summer in England.
• Info on a study abroad trip to England during KWC’s Winter 2011 Term next January.
• More general info on KWC’s study abroad program.

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Faculty wait for processional before Honors Convocation

 As we near the end of the semester, many KWC students have been honored with awards celebrating their academic achievements. The list below is testament to their extraordinary talents.

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A guest post by Professor Marisue Coy …

To call our trip an odyssey is appropriate because we traveled on our journey, had adventures, and struggled (a little) to find our way home. More on that later…

When a city names its professional football team the Titans, that city obviously respects Greek mythology. As further proof of that respect, Centennial Park stands in the middle of Nashville, and its reproduction of the Parthenon, the ancient Greek temple honoring Athene, goddess of wisdom, has attracted visitors for decades. Students enrolled in my Classical Mythology classes have visited the Parthenon nearly every semester, but this spring they got an added bonus, a visit to the Frist Museum.

April 17 started out as one of the most beautiful spring days of the year. Eight students and I left KWC’s campus in a van at 9:00 a.m. to travel to Nashville, TN. Nashville’s Frist Museum had an exhibition of Greek heroes, so we first stopped at the museum, where we saw ancient vases and artifacts depicting the stories we had studied. We could take “quizzes” to see which hero or heroine we most resembled and then look for “ourselves” in the exhibit. We wandered around that exhibit and came away with an even better appreciation for the ancient Greek stories.

In addition, we saw not only the collection of European Masterpieces (one of which depicted the “Judgment of Paris,” a pivotal story in Greek mythology), but also an innovative and fascinating exhibit by a Korean artist whose combination of metal and lights and electronics to create flowers and other unusual creatures fascinated us. It was absolutely beautiful.

After seeing all we could at the museum, we boarded the van for the quick trip to the Parthenon. When we approached, finding a place to park proved tricky because of a huge festival taking place in the park, but at last we found a spot and walked across the street to a restaurant to grab some lunch.

After another stop at an ice cream shop, we walked back to the Parthenon and spent time roaming inside to see the 40+ foot statue of Athene along with many other statues and pieces of information about the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology. We then walked around the outside of the Parthenon and enjoyed a stroll through the park. As much as we might have liked to stay longer, we found our way back to our van and headed home.

In true Greek mythology fashion, we faced a few obstacles. Like Odysseus in his journey back from the Trojan War, we found that going straight home just wasn’t meant to be. When the gas gauge indicated a need for gas, we found ourselves pretty much in the middle of nowhere with what seemed to be an empty tank. Again, in true Greek mythology tradition, we relied on heroism (two students got directions from some friendly farmers) and maybe even a little divine intervention (we found a gas station fairly easily once we got back on track). To say we were relieved would be an understatement.

At last, we arrived back on campus maybe a half hour later than we planned. In the end, we decided the entire trip was worth the effort, and no one complained about the final part of the adventure. We were thankful that at least, unlike Odysseus when he traveled home in the Odyssey, we weren’t lost for ten years.

For more photos, check out the Classical Mythology Nashville Trip photo set on Flickr.

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By Dariush Shafa, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Sunday, April 11, 2010

Four years ago, Jessica Smith crashed her car on her way from Owensboro to Penrod in Muhlenberg County, leaving her wondering whether she’d ever walk again, let alone finish school on time.

Today, Smith is a senior at Kentucky Wesleyan College, on track to graduate on time and already accepted to graduate school.

She plans to attend the McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

During the past few years, she’s struggled through pain, a back brace, physical therapy, a wheelchair, a walker and arm crutches as she recovered. Today, she walks with almost no trace of the injury that she suffered.

“It was rough,” Smith said. “I consider myself really lucky and blessed that I can walk.”

But Smith said she didn’t do it alone.

“A lot of my friends that I made (at Wesleyan) helped me,” Smith said. “Wesleyan was supportive of me, not just the professors, but the staff as well. Anywhere else, I wouldn’t have gotten that and I wouldn’t have made it. It made all the difference in the world.”

In October 2006, Smith was driving to Penrod Missionary Baptist Church during fall break. On the way there, while reaching for a bag of peppermint Lifesavers, she left the road, went down an embankment and hit a driveway, sending her car into the air before it smashed into another embankment.

Her L1 vertebra in her lower back was crushed by one of the impacts and she was taken to Muhlenberg Community Hospital. From there, she was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. She underwent back surgery the following day to repair the damage, but some of the nerve damage remains. When Smith is tired, she said, she walks with a limp. She still also can’t run fast or stand on her toes. Otherwise, however, she’s fine.

Professors made provisions for Smith to return and finish her classes in the spring, picking up partway through just as she had left them in the fall. She completed them, plus her full class load with flying colors.

“It had to be a lot of work,” said Lynette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at KWC. “She distinguished herself right off the bat. There was no reservation. (I knew) that this was someone who would finish out the work and make this all up.”

W.L. Magnuson, a professor of chemistry, said even though it was difficult for Smith, she still made it through, even standing through entire lab classes wearing her back brace.

“She had the willpower to do this,” Magnuson said.

It’s something he saw in her from the first time he met her, when she was in high school, and she told him she wanted to be a pharmacist, Magnuson said.

“I think that’s what’s driven her to succeed has been her dedication and her commitment to her professional career,” Magnuson said. “She has never wavered from that. I think that’s help her overcome these difficulties. She knew what she wanted to do.”

And overcome she did, Taylor said.

“You count on the student to finish up later, and I knew that would be the case (with her),” Taylor said.

Smith said she hopes to take what she’s learned, inside the classroom and outside, and use it to her advantage as she moves on to pharmacy school at Samford.

“I’ll miss certain things about Wesleyan and about home. I’ll always have these memories and lessons that I learned here that will help me succeed,” Smith said. “That’s a new chapter that’s about to begin. I’m really excited.”

Dariush Shafa, 691-7302, dshafa@messenger-inquirer.com

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